


Armor

by meyari



Series: Hospitality [4]
Category: DCU - Comicverse
Genre: Bondage, Harems, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2011-04-08
Updated: 2011-04-08
Packaged: 2017-10-17 18:49:54
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Underage
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,531
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/180083
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/meyari/pseuds/meyari
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Tim learns several new things when Jason comes back from Court covered with whip marks covering his back, of which the most important lesson is that just because something looks like it's terrible doesn't mean that it actually is.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Armor

Tim gasped as Alfred helped Jason into the common room. He knew that Lord Bruce had taken Jason to Court today because Dick was in trouble, but he hadn't expected that Jason would come back looking like he'd been beaten half to death. Jason's back was covered with whip stripes, some slowly seeping blood, others raised marks that would bloom into nasty bruises if they weren't treated promptly.

"Oh hell," Dick sighed. "Not again."

"Yeah, yeah, I'm fine," Jason complained as Dick and Clark helped him lie down on one of the pallets along the wall. "Don't fuss."

"I shall be back shortly with the ointment," Alfred said.

"Lionel?" Clark asked as he sat and let Jason rest his head in his lap.

"Mmm-hmm," Jason mumbled. "Not a big deal. Lionel was just a jerk again and Lord Bruce had to prove he had a bigger dick again. Nobles were being asses. S'fine."

Tim clutched his book to his chest and curled up in one of the big, comfy couches that Lord Bruce had provided them. This was exactly the sort of thing he'd expected to have happen when he was sold into Lord Bruce's service, along with Lord Bruce using him for sex every night. The sex had yet to materialize. Maybe that was just a matter of time? Of course, Jason was making very good usage of Tim, not that Tim really minded that too much. Jason made it fun every single time.

"You." Jason opened his eyes and fixed Tim with a firm stare that made his stomach turn nervous flips. "Gonna have to go to Court next with Lord Bruce. Need to be ready for it."

Dick's shocked noise and Clark's dismayed gasp perfectly expressed Tim's horror at that thought. He didn't think he could do it. There was no way that he could go to Court naked as the day he was born, wearing a collar like any born slave. It had been bad enough to be stripped in front of the Court when he was sold. He couldn't go back and face them all, hear their comments on how far he'd fallen. The mock-sad tuts of pity for him had been bad enough. Nothing would make him, not even a beating worse than the one that had disfigured Jason's back.

"That fucker Lionel will steal Clark if you don't go," Jason continued far too seriously for Tim to ignore him. "Y'don't realize how bad that would be. Been giving you time to get used to things here but there is no more time, Timmy. You gotta step up to the plate here. Dick and I are being punished, Clark can't go and you're all that's left."

"Why?" Tim asked, hearing entirely too much whine in his voice but unable to stop it. "Why can't Clark go? Why me?"

"Show 'im," Jason ordered as if he were the master, not Lord Bruce.

Clark swallowed hard before gently setting Jason's head down and standing up. He took a deep breath and met Tim's eyes. Very slowly, so slowly that Tim didn't realize it at first, Clark drifted up off the ground. He hovered in mid-air as though he was a god, the sunlight from the windows shimmering around him as though it was a golden cape draped around his shoulders. Tim jerked as he realized that he'd seen that pose before, when he'd been out stalking the Dark Knights.

"You're…" Tim couldn't say it out loud, couldn't say the name that Clark went by when he patrolled as the Son of the Sun.

He whirled to stare at Jason and Dick. Dick had a huge grin that matched exactly with the one that Nightwing always wore when he fought against the brigands and criminals that beset Gotham. Even Jason's exhausted lounge had changed so that he looked powerful and dangerous instead of beaten down. The way he held his head reminded Tim of the Red Knight, the most dangerous of the Dark Knights of Gotham.

Clark landed and came over to sit next to Tim, pulling him into his arms so that he could pet Tim's hair and murmur nonsense apologies to him. So many things that had always bothered him about the Dark Knights, especially the question of how they were never seen and recognized as they went about their daily lives, were answered by the revelations. Even Lord Bruce's seemingly mercurial behavior made much more sense when considered from the angle of his playing a role in public that protected his secret identity as Batman. Even though Tim had figured out Batman's identity ages ago, the identities of the other Dark Knights had always eluded him. Now he knew why. They were hidden away in the harem where no one could see them.

"Why me?" Tim asked again, though he meant something entirely different this time.

"You're smart, strong, and you needed to be saved," Jason said, settling back down to wait for Alfred's healing cream. "Does stuff like that. Once you're trained you'll be a good Knight too."

"He saved all of us," Dick agreed. "I was first, though Clark came shortly after me. I was just nine when my troupe was wiped out after someone murdered my parents. Lord Bruce took me in and had to make me a slave when Lionel became king. He outlawed the gypsies so this was the only place I could live."

"I came here after Lionel found out about my powers," Clark said sadly. "Prince Lex tried to protect me but he couldn't so he gave me to Lord Bruce. I'm glad he did. I'm happy belonging to Lord Bruce, even if I can't be free."

"Heh, caught me stealing a horse," Jason said with a wry grin. "His horse, as a matter of fact. There were people watching so he had to take me as his slave so that I wouldn't get my hands chopped off for it. S'fine. Rather be here than starving on the streets. Fucking Lionel outlawed a lot of the charity that used to keep people from starving."

Tim stared at them, adding all of it together into a sum that made his head spin. Dick had been Robin, Batman's page, and then grown into the role of Nightwing. Jason must have become Robin next until he grew into the Red Knight. And Clark's adventures as Superman were the stuff of legend across the land, across the whole world, truthfully.

"I'm not good enough for this," Tim protested. "I'm… not like you. I'm not strong or brave or gifted. I can't, can't be Robin."

"Huh, and here I thought you were brave enough to sneak out at night to spy on the Dark Knights," Jason drawled. He grinned at the way Dick started and stared at Tim, clearly surprised by the news. "Spotted you spying a couple of times though I never managed to catch you."

The way Dick and Clark stared at him made Tim blush brilliantly. None of that really mattered. He knew the basic requirements for a slave, though he certainly wasn't any good at them yet. What worried him was that he'd have to act the role of a slave and he didn't think he was that good at acting to pull it off. If he didn't act appropriately cowed, everyone would think that Lord Bruce was too lenient and that would endanger not only Lord Bruce but also the occupants of the harem, which then meant that the poor and downtrodden of Gotham would no longer have the Dark Knights to protect him. The sheer weight on his shoulders to act appropriately made Tim fight down a horrible surge of nausea.

"We need to talk," Lord Bruce announced as he strode in with Alfred on his heels.

"Told 'im," Jason mumbled. "S'freaking out."

"I am not freaking out," Tim protested automatically even though he really was. "I… I just don't think I can act well enough to do this."

Lord Bruce frowned at him, obviously worried about the whole situation. As Alfred set to work on treating Jason's whip marks, Dick cocked his head and smiled at Tim. It wasn't the sort of smile that made Tim relax. If anything, it made him squirm nervously for the things that seemed to be implied by the smile. Clark's arm tightened automatically around Tim's shoulders as if to protect him from whatever might be coming.

"There's always a gag," Dick commented to Tim's utter horror. Dick sighed at the way everyone, including Lord Bruce looked at him. "No, really. You know as well as I do that he's going to be expected to be unbroken and completely miserable about the whole thing. A gag, some cuffs on his wrists and maybe a butt plug would reassure everyone that he's being properly trained _and_ it would keep some of the worst Lords from requesting to help break him."

"Cobblepot," Jason growled.

"Lionel," Clark said and shuddered.

"Lord Elliot," Lord Bruce sighed and nodded. "That does make a certain amount of sense."

Dick nodded, confident in exactly the way that Tim wasn't. The thought of going into public naked was bad enough. Going to Court bound, gagged and plugged made him squirm uncomfortably. Jason chuckled, eyeing Tim's groin, which was much more interested in the idea than Tim was happy about.

Dick caught the look and laughed. "I can help you get the hang of it. It's actually not that bad and there are different things you can do to make it more comfortable. Besides, there are plugs that are much smaller inside than they appear on the outside. We'd never stick you with something that hurt."

"Yet," Jason said, wagging his eyebrows at Tim and grinning.

The marks on Jason's back were fading rapidly under Alfred's ointment. Whatever Alfred used had to be incredibly powerful to have that strong of an effect but then it made sense for the Dark Knights to have that sort of resource. The Dark Knights…

Tim swallowed down his nervousness and considered Dick's suggestion objectively. If he were gagged, then no one would expect to interact with him. He wouldn’t have to respond to the nobles' comments. The bondage would protect him from being touched in any way and if Lord Bruce made him wear a leash then he wouldn't have to even pay attention to the others given the traditions that a leashed slave only paid attention to the one holding the leash. Even the plug would ensure that he was protected against someone requesting to try him out.

It would all be like armor, armor to protect him from the things that most disturbed him about going to Court again.

"All right," Tim said as he met Lord Bruce's eyes. "I'll need to practice but I think Dick's right. It's the most logical choice. It would be wise to add a leash and a penile plug as well, which should preclude anyone would requesting oral usage of me as well as reinforcing your position as Lord."

They all stared at him, Lord Bruce with a raised eyebrow and Jason with a snicker that made him blush. Tim suspected that this was another time when his mind moved much faster than anyone expected it too, leaving him well in advance of the people around him.

"Perv," Jason chuckled.

"It's not perverted," Tim protested. "It's… it's like armor. A shield to keep them away from me, to misdirect them."

Lord Bruce's eyes warmed with a level of approval that made Tim's stomach flip for entirely different reasons. He'd never had anyone look at him like that before. Even Jason's approving looks had far more to do with lust than anything else. Tim ducked his head and fiddled with the binding on his book, at least until Lord Bruce grunted his approval.

"Get as much practice as you can before next week," Lord Bruce said. "We'll need to figure out a system so that I can warn you before you need to kneel. I won't have you breaking your kneecaps on the marble floors at Court."

"They really are hard," Dick agreed.

"And cold." Jason nodded his agreement.

+++++

The gag that they'd settled on was a small hollow bar that rested between Tim's teeth. It was soft enough that he could bite down on it and have it give a bit, yet firm enough to handle the worst bite that he could inflict. That it was attached to a harness that wrapped around his head rather like a bridle had made Tim blush but at least there would be no doubt about his being able to tongue it free. Tim was glad that he'd turned down the blinders that went with it. He really didn't want to lose his field of vision today.

They'd chosen a pair of heavy cuffs that encased his arms from wrist to elbow with a heavy chain between them. Tim had nearly completely free movement of his arms while looking as though he could barely twitch. To Lord Bruce's surprise, he'd agreed to a pair of ankle cuffs that had chains going up to his wrists. The way the chains jingled as he moved emphasized the whole display without restricting Tim's movements.

Add that to the black leather harness criss-crossing his body and holding the small butt plug in place, the Seven Gates of Hell wrapped around his erection and the fierce blush on Tim's cheeks as he walked behind Bruce and Tim suspected that Lord Bruce's reputation as a tough slave master had just risen several notches.

"That's a bit more than I expected to see," Lord Oliver commented very quietly to Lord Bruce. Roy was standing behind him in a scarlet tunic with so much sympathy in his eyes that Tim had to look away.

"He was of noble blood, Oliver," Lord Bruce said. "This hasn't exactly been easy for anyone."

Lord Oliver's expression hovered somewhere between disapproving and considering so Tim quite deliberately didn't move with Lord Bruce when he headed into Court. That meant that he jerked the leash in Lord Bruce's hand and earned a very hard look from Lord Bruce that made everyone around them nod sadly. Tim did his best to walk slowly, being as visibly reluctant as possible, as they headed into the huge, ornate room filled with nobility. Acting the part actually made it much easier to deal with how they looked at him, as well as changing their expressions from pity to somewhat creepy lust.

Lord Cobblepot licked his lips when he spotted Tim, nudging Lord Thomas Elliot so that he would see Tim as well. There were friends of his parents who had abandoned him to his fate and Lords who had bid to try and buy Tim for their harems. In the center of the room, King Lionel watched Lord Bruce and Tim as though he wanted to take Tim away and keep him. Given the way most wards of the crown were treated, Tim felt it was completely appropriate for him to pale and edge a little closer to Lord Bruce, though not so close that it would look like he wanted to be there.

Lord Oliver and Roy hovered close, Roy always staying between Tim and the other nobility as if he wanted to protect Tim from them. The conversation around them drifted across the legislation that was going to be covered today to legal cases and always, always drifted ever so casually onto how Tim was doing in his training.

"It's slow," Lord Bruce sighed. "He's having some difficulty making the transition from free to slave, I'm afraid. We'll keep working at it, of course. What else can you do? This is his lot in life, at least for the next few years. I'm hopeful that I can break him well enough that he can leave the harem and become a productive member of my staff by the time he reaches the age of majority but so far there's no sign of it happening soon."

When it came time for King Lionel to ascend his throne to hear the matters before the Court, Tim made Lord Bruce force him to his knees. Lord Bruce growled slightly but the grip on Tim's bridle was gentle. He suspected that it looked rather harsh but Lord Bruce's fingers gently massaged Tim's head and he allowed Tim to shift position frequently as his knees ached and his feet started tingling. Afterwards, when Tim's legs were so cold that he thought he'd never be warm again and his feet felt like blocks of wood, Lord Cobblepot waddled over and eyed Tim.

"I don't suppose you need any help breaking him," Lord Cobblepot said, hemming and snickering a little at the look of the Gates of Hell wrapped around Tim's genitals, "but I do have some wonderful contacts in the slave breaking industry if you want them."

"No, that's quite all right," Lord Bruce said while his fingers tightened painfully on Tim's harness as he was hauled to his feet and then supported until his legs held him. "I'm content with his progress so far. I will keep it in mind for the future though."

"Very good, very good," Lord Cobblepot said, licking his lips as if he wanted to make a meal of Tim. "Do let me know."

He waddled off, only to be replaced by other Lords and Ladies making similar offers or comments on the quality of the restraints wrapped around Tim's body. It was embarrassing enough that Tim's cheeks burned but he wasn't as mortified as he'd expected to be. The bondage gear did exactly as he'd thought it would: Tim wasn't 'that former noble fallen on such hard times, poor thing'. Instead he was 'that stubborn boy who won't accept his place the way he should'. Strangely enough, it was much easier for him to handle the mock-helpful offers and lust than it would have been to deal with the pity.

By the time they left Court several hours later, Tim understood why Jason had warned him that it was boring. He'd always found the currents of politics fascinating before his entrance to the harem but now that he had no power and no freedom, it was all irrelevant and almost stultifyingly boring. Tim still memorized the discussions going on around him but this time it was more a matter of keeping himself from twitching from sheer impatience for it to be over.

Once they were back in the carriage, Lord Bruce coaxed Tim's head around and removed the bit. Tim sighed with relief and wiped his chin while working his mouth. Wearing it was tiring though not as tiring as some of the gags that Dick and Jason favored.

"All right?" Lord Bruce asked.

"Mmm-hmm," Tim murmured, rubbing his cheeks. "I'm fine. That was surprisingly boring. I didn't expect that."

Lord Bruce chuckled, rubbing Tim's hair fondly. "Want the rest off?"

"No, I should be seen going back to the harem the same way as I went in," Tim said thoughtfully. "Unless you want to convey the impression that I gave you a blow job on the way home."

"No, I think not," Lord Bruce said just a little huffily. "We'll be going out tonight. Will you be all right alone?"

Tim nodded, more than comfortable with that thought now that he knew that 'going out' meant going out to fight against crime as the Dark Knights. Lord Bruce raised an eyebrow and cocked his head at Tim as if to ask him a question. As he had no idea what the question was, Tim met the curious look with a baffled one.

"You'll have to stay in the gear until the others get back to the harem, Tim," Lord Bruce said gently. "We'll be leaving immediately after we return so that we can get the most done before people expect to see us at the Manor for the party I'm hosting. And it would be good for the servants to see you this way in the morning as well so we might want to leave it on all night."

"Oh." Tim blinked and considered it. After a moment, he nodded. "I believe so, though a trip to the toilet would be appreciated before you go or at least when you get back. This is surprisingly comfortable, all things considered."

Lord Bruce laughed and nodded. "Easily done. I will want to know what you learned today."

"Well, I did overhear quite a lot," Tim replied. "It was quite easy to listen in to other conversations while you were focused on the people talking to you."

Tim settled in at Lord Bruce's feet and started repeating what he'd heard. From the surprised approval on Lord Bruce's face, his ability to remember and repeat conversations was one that was quite valuable. That wasn't necessarily what Tim wanted as it meant that he'd have to put on his 'armor' and return to court fairly frequently, but if it helped Lord Bruce and the Dark Knights, Tim was more than willing to do it as often as he had to.


End file.
